The Knowledge of Others: Extra-European Knowledge, Ideas and Artifacts in Early Modern Europe
Abstract
The lectures of the section explore the question of how members of European societies in the early modern period gained access to repositories of knowledge and knowledge carriers originating from across the oceans and received the knowledge available through them.
For this purpose, the contributors present case studies that focus either on repositories of knowledge, for example in the form of maps and official documents, or on the stay of knowledge carriers in Europe. With regard to the artifacts that stored knowledge, special attention is paid to the context of their creation and the relation of non-European indigenous or European influence on their creation. In the case of knowledge carriers, on the other hand, the focus is on the context of their transfer and the goals that they and European actors associated with it.
Across the board, with regard to both artifacts and knowledge carriers, the contributions examine contemporary assessments regarding the credibility or fragility of the knowledge available through them. For this purpose, it is to be examined to what extent non-European knowledge carriers or artifacts were regarded as belonging to, compatible with, or alien to already existing knowledge or the rules of the epistemic system and what effects this assessment had. Thus, through their respective case studies, the contributions also contribute to questioning the dichotomy of 'European' and 'non-European' used as a research category. Finally, the contributions address the respective effects of the exemplarily examined bodies of knowledge, for example on future knowledge collections, intercultural contacts or interactions in colonial spaces.
Der Vortrag eröffnet einen Überblick darüber, wie Höflinge, Freibeuter, Händler oder Ordensgeistliche in England und Frankreich versuchten, das Wissen amerikanischer Indigener für koloniale Projekte nutzbar zu machen. Untersucht werden hierfür Aufenthalte indigener sowie interkultureller Akteur:innen aus den Amerikas in Europa, ihr jeweiliger Kontext und ihre Wirkungsgeschichte. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit liegt dabei auf der Frage, inwiefern versucht wurde, ihr Wissen systematisch zu erfassen, und welche Bedeutung die Zuschreibung von Fremdheit, Zugehörigkeit oder Interkulturalität für die Einschätzung ihrer Glaubwürdigkeit besaß.
Most research on Spanish viceregal society depicts laws’ ‘racial’ terms as evidence of top-down racialization. Few ‘racial’ categories have received as much attention as the mestizo, which in the 1500s came to mean any individual of part-Spanish, part-Indian descent. Using textual analysis on 184 viceregal edicts, 5 viceregal instructions, 11 viceregal ordinances, 1 Indian ordinance, and 17 royal decrees, this talk shows that Indians actually played a central role in prompting imperial policies on mestizos. Paradoxically, the fragile, organic, bottom-up nature of this ‘racial’ category made it more useful for vassals, ensuring its penetration into everyday uses of the law.
In the 18th century, French intellectuals were debating the veracity of Biblical chronology. While the role of ‘Indian’ knowledge in this debate has been documented, few have examined the unintended consequences of the process through which it reached Europe. Focusing on French translations of ‘Indian’ texts by the Tamil-Christian convert, Maridas Pillai, this paper demonstrates how the very process of transmission produced its own set of controversies. Thus, besides the content, the very way in which indigenous knowledge arrived in Europe gave rise to key questions about ownership of translations and the right to present indigenous knowledge in Europe and, in doing so, also shaped its reception.
Der Beitrag widmet sich der ältesten aus Nordamerika überlieferten Karte, die von einem indigenen Mann im Auftrag von Europäern gezeichnet wurde. Ausgehend hiervon soll untersucht werden, wie Spanier und Indigene trotz Sprachbarrieren über komplexe räumliche Zusammenhänge kommunizierten. Hierzu wird die Karte als Bestandteil eines Befragungsprotokolls analysiert. Das mittels nonverbaler Kommunikation generierte Wissen enthielt „fragile Fakten“, deren Glaubwürdigkeit einer besonderen Begründung bedurfte. Es soll gezeigt werden, wie die administrative Erfassung der Kommunikationspraktiken dazu diente, Entscheidungsträger in Europa von der Glaubwürdigkeit dieser Fakten zu überzeugen.